Zi Zhi Lai
Zi Zhi Lai, or just Zi for short, is a goat Ilaan mercenary and the main character of the story Terms of Engagement. Bio Zi Zhi Lai is a goat Ilaan born on August 1st, 1979, on her parents' rice farm outside of Beijing, China. As a kid she went to a public school with regular human children and a few more Ilaans, though she was the youngest of these. While in school she learned English and at home learned to speak Chinese, as well as some Korean from her father. She completed all of her schooling by the age of 17 and chose to work the rice farm with both of her parents. It wasn't until she was 19 that she would express a desire to leave China to go somewhere else in the world. Her parents were hesitant at first, fearing that they would lose their only child to something that would be worthless. However, over time they supported her in her search for a place to go and she chose an opportunity to move to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. At 20 years old she came to'' Yahuma, DRC by plane. Once there she found a job working as help on a local farm owned by an English couple. While working there she met another Ilaan, a bull by the name of Nathan Sayre responsible for guarding the shipments of food sent out by truck. They would begin to flirt on and off just shortly before her 21st birthday and around her 6 month anniversary of coming to the DRC. When she turned 23, he asked her to marry him. She gladly accepted and they were married on March 16th of 2002. A few weeks after their marriage she informed Nathan that she was pregnant and on January 4th, 2003, their son Le was born. She'd argued with Nathan for a while about letting her give their son a Chinese name and they both settled on the name, with Nathan saying "that at least it doesn't sound one-hundred percent Chinese". In June of 2003, she discovered that Nathan had been involved in running opium across the country. She was irate and even threatened him with divorce. He convinced her that he was making good money and that the security he'd been providing the farm was still his number one job. She managed to calm down and did not file for divorce. Through his drug money, they managed to fund their trip to China so that Nathan could meet her parents, who were unable to attend the wedding, and meet Le for the first time. When they got back to the DRC, Nathan began to train her to shoot various weapons and taught her some of the military tactics he had learned while with the United States Army in his earlier life. She became a regular in his "classes" when she had some free time with Le, and joined other members who were eager to hop on his drug operation. She became very proficient with the Ak-47 but complained that it was so hard to control. To try and please his wife, Nathan taught her to use an M4. She found it so much easier to use and it became her preferred weapon. For their 2nd wedding anniversary, Nathan had two gold-plated weapons made for her: an Ak-47 and a Desert Eagle. She was flattered to have both but jokingly said that the Ak looked like he didn't know her very well. He said, "The M4 just doesn't look good with gold-plates". She learned to fire the Desert Eagle and, surprisingly, found it easy to use compared to the Ak. Nathan found this funny and never let her live it down. In early 2007, her and Nathan were both arrested after a shoot out with a group of mercenaries and bounty hunters sent to break up their drug operation and/or capture or kill the both of them. Her and her husband both surrendered and were detained at the U.S. embassy in Brazzaville. After being charged and sentenced to life in a federal prison they were sent away. However, one of the mercenaries managed to get the both of them out, handed them both Le and some of their belongings, and told them to meet him in Thika, Kenya. They left immediately. When they arrived in Thika, the mercenary whom identified himself as Harley Gieck explained that he was familiar with their operation and their reputation. He wanted them to know that if they wanted to make good money and not be on the illegal side of it that he was willing to contact the leader of the merc group he worked for, "Serverbob", and let them know that he had some new recruits. Zi declined but Nathan accepted. There was no arguing between them and Gieck told her that if she changed her mind to just let someone know. Done with her life of crime she decided to raise Le in a better home. The money ''was good but came with the price of Nathan not being home as often. This made her and Le, whom was now 6 years old, cherish the moments that he was home with them. There were even talks about her and Le going to China to visit her parents. For Le's 9th birthday, he and her went to China to visit his grandparents. On their way out, they both were arrested and sent to the Chang Political Prison. No reason was disclosed and the two of them were separated. Nathan and a few others would hear about their detaining and would come to their rescue in the night. However, only Zi would leave the prison. Le had been killed at an unknown time after arrival. Heartbroken, her and her husband left China and returned to Kenya. She fell into a great depression and attempted suicide but was saved by her husband just in time. He mentioned to her one day while on leave that they still needed able-bodied people with weapons training for mercenary work. He added that, "I was unable to save Le but the thought runs through my head that perhaps I can save someone else from the same curse". She took this to heart and made it her goal. She told Nathan she was ready to join up. So in 2012, she enlisted, was accepted, and went into basic training with the "Serverbob" Mercenaries. She would be completely finished in early 2013. Over time however, Nathan would begin to regret asking her to join up because he found it hard to focus as his wife was now in combat. On several occasions he asked her to quit and go home. She refused every time and reminded him that his goal was her goal too. He finally stopped trying but never gave up his worry for her. She felt the same way and wished that he wouldn't be in combat either. They worked well as a team, though. Her first mission with the Mercenaries was on April 5th, 2013 and took place in Syria. The job was simple and there was no real shooting, much to the relief of her husband. She would be involved in more combat on and off for the next two years but mostly assisgned to security missions in areas that were relatively "safe". It wouldn't be until early 2015 that she'd see some real combat when she was sent with a group to the United States to assist a group of National Guardsmen with retrieving or destroying an explosive cache from a downed helicopter. Nathan would not be sent with them and she found herself alone. However, after proving herself capable of handling combat missions without him, she became what the Mercs referred to as a "stand-in" for combat roles when needed. This would change eventually and she'd be a "regular" in all missions where she was assigned. Relationships Beyung-Ju Zhou Father Wei-Lu Ming (Zhou) Mother Nathan Sayre Husband Le Son Notes *She apparently likes mint leaves. *She hates swearing and alcoholism. *She is fluent in both English and Chinese. *She has four toes in total; two on each foot, but has five fingered hands. *Her dossier says that she's 5'6" and weighs 114 pounds and that she was born to Beyung-Ju Zhou and Wei-Lu Ming. *Her weapon of choice is the M4A1 with a grenade launcher. *She has a scar on her left shoulder inflicted by her husband while defending Le. Category:Pages on the wiki Category:Characters Category:Serverbob Category:Characters of Serverbob Category:Ilaans Category:Works in Progress